Mr. John Leanyfalvy was a narrow-minded man. He was the postmaster of
Szent-Endre. He neither paid nor received visits; he had but one hobby,
and that was gardening. This he rode with a persistency worthy of a
Dutchman. He grew flowers of which no one had ever heard before--exotic
blooms almost extinct, but for the fostering shelter his garden walls
afforded.
He was specially celebrated for his melons. At the time of the
melon-harvest, two great mastiffs guarded the melon-plot over which his
bedroom window looked. In this garden all his spare time was spent. He
was so busy one afternoon over his melon-beds, that he did not observe
how his mastiff, who by day was chained up, was growling at a man who
stood before the garden gate. He only became aware of the new-comer when
the latter wished him good day. He looked round and saw a stranger
dressed in the latest modish costume of Vienna, and finally, he
recognised in the apparition his nephew, young Matyi.
"Why bless me if it isn't my nephew Matyi. I hardly recognised you in
this fashionable coat, I declare. But very welcome you are all the
same."
And the old man embraced his nephew heartily.
"Ay, but you've become a man since I saw you last. You only want a
moustache," and he looked at Raby's smooth-shaven face critically. "But
you are not in a hurry to be back in Vienna, I hope?"
"Well, unless you want to send me away, I needn't be in a hurry to go
back, as I could stay here all the winter," answered Raby.
"Well, don't talk to me about sending you off. I know well enough you
are under someone else's orders."
"Yes, uncle, under orders to stay here for some time."
"Oh! I take it, you are here then for the taxation commission?"
It was an office which had at that time but an unenviable reputation in
Hungary.
"More pressing business still," answered the young man with a smile, as
he whispered something in the old gentleman's ear, which was evidently
an important disclosure.
The features of the old man relaxed.
"Now that's something like; that's capital! Now I can reckon you a man.
Only don't neglect the work."
"Trust me!"
"And then don't begin among the lesser folk, but get hold of the great
people. Go straight to the prefect himself; he's the one to tackle. Ay,
I could give you some good advice. Hear all, see all, and hold your
tongue, as the saying goes. But you know all about that, and have no
need of a plaster over your mouth."
"Yet if I find the guilty, I shall not spare them, I warn you, whoever
they be."
"You will see, my boy," said the old gentleman, rubbing his hands, "if
you tackle the prefect properly, you will be court judge of Visegrad,
year in and year out." And he clapped his nephew on the shoulder.
"What kind of a berth is it in Visegrad?"
"Ay, my boy, that's the fattest plum in the neighbourhood; it's worth
more than a hundred county court magistracies, and it happens to be just
vacant."
"How could I hope to get it?"
"What a stiff-necked man it is to be sure! Didn't you get to Vienna? You
don't surely reckon yourself among those people who let themselves be
cajoled by the gift of a fine horse or a roll of ducats: a man like you
is worthy a bigger bribe."
The young man became suddenly crimson.
"But, my uncle, I don't come for that--for the sake of a horse or money,
or even a court magistracy, not to be bribed by the great, but rather to
redress the grievances of the folk who are oppressed, and to rectify
abuses."
At this speech Mr. Leanyfalvy shifted his zouave from the left to the
right shoulder.
"Don't you know, my dear boy, that out of the mouth of the poor,
complaints are not heard. There must be a God who hears them,
nevertheless. Yet the government is a power against which one man can
avail nothing. How can you protect the sown fields from the marmots? Man
is just such a marmot. Dismiss him who is now in office, and put another
in his place; you only change for the worse. As long as there are fools
and knaves in the world, so long will the one always rob the other."
"Now if you reckon abuses of office among social ills, I can but tell
you that if you have a will, you can amend them. And this will have I."
"Yes, but have you likewise the power? 'Whoso is wanting in strength is
powerless in wrath.' Besides, who stands behind you?"
"The Emperor himself."
"And who else?"
"Isn't he enough?"
"That doesn't suffice; you must have the presiding judge as a patron, or
the lord chancellor, or at least the district commissioner. If you can
only ensure the Emperor's favour, that doesn't go far. What can you say
to our Emperor, except 'May it please his Majesty,' and that he is
lampooned daily. Every day there come some such scurrilous pamphlets to
my notice."
"The Kaiser believes in unlimited freedom of opinion."
"Hang freedom of opinion! If I were Emperor, and anyone printed such
things about me, I would take my axe and play such a tune on the
writer's head with it, that he would not ask for a second one. And then
if the Hungarians see that the Austrians dare thus to insult the Kaiser,
what liberties will the Hungarian not allow himself?"
"Yes, indeed. All those who are shocked at his novelties, murmur against
him. They abuse him because the freedom hitherto only accorded to a
certain class and creed, will now be extended to all his subjects
indiscriminately."
"Let us talk about the melons, my dear boy. Look at this one with the
mottled rind. When it's ready you can eat it without harm. But take a
bite, before it is ripe, and you get a horribly sore mouth. Now it's
just the same with liberty. When it is ripe, the grower can present it
to the people on a pewter plate. But cut it before it is ready, and the
melon and he who eats it, alike are done for. I know you will maintain
that one can force the melon to get ripe, if you have hot-beds and
green-houses. Now you and your friends, the philosophers and
philanthropists, are just such growers at the present time. Who could
get enough hot-beds and forcing-houses for the whole world? Wait till
the dog-days come, and the heat of the sun will let each one ripen in
its proper measure."
"Good, uncle. I accept the melon allegory, and will answer you in your
own gardening terms: If you want melons, you must sow the seeds. Some
sprout, others lay dormant. Then comes the worm to devour them, and the
mildew and the frosts to blast the young shoots, yet, in spite of all,
your true gardener tends them to the end. Such a sower am I, who plant
what is entrusted to me in the ground, that others may reap the
harvest."
The simile pleased the old gentleman much; he stroked his moustache
thoughtfully.
"You are the right sort, my boy. And if you feel equal to the task,
undertake it. But I fear you won't succeed! But you have not come here
to stir up a hornet's nest, have you?"
"No, uncle. First of all, I shall procure the actual facts of the case,
and till I get them, I shall not say a word to anyone."
"That's well and good. But how will you get those facts?"
"I have reckoned for all that. I mean to settle down and buy myself a
house, with a field and vineyard. As an inhabitant of the city, I shall
have the right to mix myself up in local affairs."
"That sounds like business. For that matter, I can recommend you a house
that belonged to the notary's brother. It's a fine property, with
garden, vineyard, and meadow attached. The owner is a drunken
good-for-nothing, and over head and ears in debt, but can, by realising
the property, pay his debts, and still have something left. Leave the
contract to me."
"Agreed then, uncle. The money question can soon be settled, as I have
what will be necessary."
"So far, so good. But after, when you have your facts, who is going to
be prosecutor?"
"I myself will be."
The old gentleman stroked his moustache doubtfully.
"Oho, my boy, that's a dangerous game. Do you know that the law won't
allow you to do it anonymously? The prosecutor must act in his own
name."
"I shall lodge my complaint openly so that the guilty can recognise me."
"Then be sure they will try and get rid of you."
"That is the fortune of war."
The old man smiled slily.
"It has just occurred to me you can't be prosecutor."
"Why not?"
"Why, pray, have you not studied law in Vienna? Docs not the decree of
St. Stephen lay it down that the prosecutor must be a married man? If
you are single, you are not qualified to make the depositions."
"All right, I'll marry."
His hearer fairly shook with laughter.
"My boy, I've heard many motives suggested for matrimony, but never one
like yours. You are going to marry to help the people to their rights!
Remember that--
"'He who takes himself a wife,
Does but heap up care and strife.'"
"But, uncle, what can you, who were never married, have to urge against
matrimony?"
"Oh, I've nothing against your marrying. Leave that also to me. I have
found you a house; now I'll find you a wife."
"It is very good of you, I'm sure."
"I'm not joking. I know of a right suitable maiden for you. You remember
when you were still a lawyer's clerk, pretty little Mariska, the
notary's daughter. Well, she has become a fine girl. Since her mother's
death she manages the household entirely, and nowhere is there one so
well ordered as Tarhalmy's. She spends no money beyond what she gives to
the poor, and knows how to save as well. She's none of your frilled and
furbelowed fine ladies, and does not frizz her hair in the latest
fashion, but just dresses like a modest Magyar maid; and when you talk
to her, you hardly know what colour her eyes are, so modestly are they
cast down. Nor does she waste time in chatter, but gives you a plain
answer to a plain question, with the prettiest blush imaginable. That's
the wife for you, my boy, and a right comely one, I promise you."
"All right, uncle. When I've bought the house, and had time to look
round a little, I'll go and see her."
And with that, Raby took his leave.